Govt launches �SonChiraiya' to market Urban SHG products

New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on Friday launched ‘SonChiraiya -- a brand and logo -- for marketing the products of urban self-help groups (SHGs).

While launching the brand and logo, MoHUA Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said that helping women become financially empowered and live a dignified life is one of the priority areas of the government.

The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) under the aegis of MoHUA has focussed on equipping the urban poor women with adequate skills and opportunities to enable them to promote sustainable micro enterprises.

It mobilises women from urban poor households into SHGs and their federations to create a support system for these women. According to MoHUA, over 5.7 lakh SHGs have been formed across various states/UTs with almost 60 lakh members.

Many of these SHGs are engaged in livelihood activities, producing goods such as handicrafts, textiles, toys, eatables and so on.

These were being sold primarily in the local neighbourhood markets and often faced barriers in achieving visibility and wide market access.

To overcome these challenges, the ministry entered into an MoU with leading e-commerce portals like Amazon and Flipkart, with an underlying narrative of women empowerment.

Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, this partnership has successfully on-boarded over 2,000 products of nearly 5,000 SHG members across 25 states and UTs.

Innovative methods of online training for SHGs have been ensured to enable them to smoothly operate on the e-portals.

Live demonstrations for account registration, pricing, packaging, re-branding and so on were also organised in collaboration with the e-portals and the state urban livelihood missions.

"This initiative will certainly prove as a step towards increased visibility and global access for the products made by urban SHG women. The ministry expects to link many more such SHG members, with variety of professionally packaged, hand-crafted ethnic products, reaching the doorsteps of the customers globally," the ministry said.